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THE WAYPOINT SUR
The bill cannot show you the hour
Our read: on the Costa, September's electricity decision starts with the gap between lunch and evening. A lower bill forecast can conceal a higher price for the same power.
Your contract decides whether moving a wash changes what you pay. The monthly total gives you no answer to that.
Mainland Spain's PVPC is the precio voluntario para el pequeño consumidor — the government-set electricity price that changes hour by hour.
On Monday 14 September, its energy rate was €0.058 per kilowatt-hour at 14:00 and €0.431 at 20:00. These rates include energy tolls and charges; contracted power, meter rental and taxes come separately.
A cheaper forecast, with the air conditioning off
Roams models a 4.4 kW household using 290.6 kWh monthly; from September's first eight days, assuming 20% less usage, it forecasts a September bill of €58.96 against August's €69.79, all taxes included.
Hello Watt forecasts a September bill of €53.55 against August's €66.38 for a 4.4 kW household with "average real household consumption"; it does not disclose the usage figure. Both comparison businesses are paid when a customer signs.
Those falls are forecasts built on assumed consumption. Roams specifies a usage cut; Hello Watt leaves its quantity undisclosed.
Meanwhile, our reading of Red Eléctrica's hourly PVPC data gives €0.189 per kWh for 1-15 September against €0.166 across August, about 13% higher. These are plain hourly averages, not household payments.
Spain's wholesale pool, where generators sell electricity, averaged 147.38 EUR/MWh for 1-15 September against August's 118.24, about a quarter higher. That is a market price, never a household bill.
A Costa household still using air conditioning may miss the forecast saving. Its bill depends on its contract, how much electricity it uses and when.
Wednesday 16 September, the day you read this, is cheaper on the regulated tariff too: an average of €0.177 per kWh, 14% below Tuesday. Its cheapest hour is again 14:00-15:00, at €0.047, and its dearest is 21:00-22:00 at €0.339, a hair above the 20:00 hour.
Confirmed September 2026.
The clock moved
In our 3 August and 7 August issues, 31 July's regulated energy cost €0.120 per kWh at 15:00 and €0.359 at 21:00. Our afternoon advice holds; the evening has shifted.
The dearest PVPC hour was 20:00-21:00 on each day from 10 to 15 September; on Wednesday, 21:00 edges it by a fraction of a cent. Tuesday 15 September's cheapest hour, 14:00-15:00, cost €0.060 per kWh; its 20:00-21:00 peak cost €0.362.
Monday's morning peak also reached €0.332 per kWh at 08:00, below the evening peak. Midnight to eight averaged €0.210, against €0.075 for 14:00-17:00: 2.8 times as much.
The access-toll calendar still gives midnight to eight its cheapest tolls. Monday's cheapest total regulated hours fell inside the middle toll band. The calendar prices one component correctly; it never promised the cheapest total.
Readers have told us they cannot separate the seasonal changes in their bills. One asked whether midnight to eight still suited electric-car charging. Monday's energy prices give a fairly expensive answer.
Nine hours below zero
Across 5 and 6 September, nine PVPC hours went negative, reported as a first by the energy specialist press citing Red Eléctrica. Both daily averages stayed positive; Sunday's 21:00-22:00 hour cost €0.302 per kWh.
The 2024 reform added a futures hedge to the regulated energy price. In 2026 its adjustment uses 55% of the difference between the futures basket and the day's average wholesale price, with an hourly demand correction.
A lower futures basket reduces hourly costs and can push an already-cheap lunchtime hour below zero; a higher basket adds to them.
Gas plants tend to set evening prices after solar output falls.
At Saturday 5 September's regulated floor, -1.07 cents per kWh at 15:00-16:00, drawing three to four kW for that hour could earn at most three to four cents. Our read: interesting plumbing, modest pocket money.
If your contract follows the clock
The tariff line on your bill separates four arrangements.
PVPC passes through the regulated hourly prices above. A free-market indexed tariff follows its own index, usually wholesale prices plus fees; its figures differ.
A flat 24-hour fixed rate removes the hourly gap; check contracted power and add-ons instead. A fixed rate with periods rewards using its contracted cheaper hours. "Fixed" alone does not identify which you hold.
For PVPC, the past week's useful afternoon window was 14:00-17:00, away from 19:00-22:00; on Wednesday it runs to 18:00. Indexed customers must check their own contract's prices.
Check the day's hours in your supplier's app or Red Eléctrica's before moving washing, dishwashing, pool pumping or charging. Count only loads your household can move; dinner can stay at eight.
At the regulated rates, moving two kWh from 20:00 to 14:00 would have saved €0.75 before taxes on Monday 14 September and €0.60 on Tuesday 15 September.
A hypothetical month of 20 such swaps would mean roughly €12-€15 before taxes, €15-€19 after them, at unchanged usage.
If the bill still leaves you guessing, our electricity contract check takes its PDF or figures entered by hand and separates tariff, power, add-ons, timing and terms, with one conservative next step.
The PDF goes to our server to be read and is not kept; you can also enter the figures by hand.
It also checks an offered rate, accepts solar generation, export and payment figures, and asks when your car charges.
A fixed-versus-PVPC verdict requires taxes, hourly usage, contracted power, fees, promotions and add-ons in one comparable total. Neither the checker nor this issue supplies that switch verdict.
With very little electricity use, fixed charges can dominate; check contracted power first. During occupied months, the contract's pricing structure matters again.
e-distribución is an Endesa-group distributor in Málaga province; the meter and the wires stay the same whoever sends the bill.
If a fixed contract ends by March, diarise renewal. The reference price for Spain's October-December 2026 baseload future rose from 91.20 EUR/MWh on 29 May to 155.46 on 14 September. That dated forward price explains the renewal exposure; it predicts no household bill.
Spanish-lite
¿Mi tarifa es PVPC, indexada, fija las 24 horas o fija por periodos? — Is my tariff PVPC, indexed, fixed all day or fixed by time period?
Use this with your supplier while identifying the contract.
The bottom line
Our read: the lower September bill forecast is weak grounds for signing a new contract. The tariff line tells you whether the hour, the contracted power or the renewal date deserves your attention.
Onwards — A. and the WaypointSur team, checking the contract but still blaming the dishwasher.
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